Pre-park - Garden Grill or Akershus?

[carrielouhoo]

Which seems like a better strategy, an 8 AM Garden Grill breakfast or 8 AM Akershus breakfast? I feel confident that an 8 AM Garden Grill breakfast would mean we could get on Soarin' before or with the rope drop crowd, but have heard that it might be rushing to get through an Akershus breakfast an on to FEA before the crowd hits. What are your thoughts/experience? We are familiar with both restaurants and are happy with either breakfast/character selection, and obviously wouldn't want to rush either for the sake of getting on a ride. However, we've not done either restaurant prior to park opening.

 

[Jfsag123]

We've done both as PPO reservations, but Akershus was before FEA existed. Garden Grill was great. Loved the food and the characters, and we were the first people on Soarin' for the day - sat in B1 with only 2 other people in the entire theater.

With Akershus we weren't trying to be out to get to a ride, which was a good thing, as that meal took a little longer to see all of the princesses. I'm sure it could be done (and many folks will likely report having done it), but I wouldn't want to rush through that one.

 

[vanjust14]

I haven't done it yet, but we have a PPO Garden Grill breakfast ressie with the intent of being some of the first people in line for Soarin. I looked into both PPO breakfasts and think this one is the best option. I also like the idea of staying in Future World for the morning and then heading over to WS and doing FEA with an FP around noon. Less walking back and forth.

 

[fely1st]

Which seems like a better strategy, an 8 AM Garden Grill breakfast or 8 AM Akershus breakfast? I feel confident that an 8 AM Garden Grill breakfast would mean we could get on Soarin' before or with the rope drop crowd, but have heard that it might be rushing to get through an Akershus breakfast an on to FEA before the crowd hits. What are your thoughts/experience? We are familiar with both restaurants and are happy with either breakfast/character selection, and obviously wouldn't want to rush either for the sake of getting on a ride. However, we've not done either restaurant prior to park opening.

Don't know when your trip is, but we are doing both PPO Garden Grill and Akershus for the same reasons, get on Soarin and FEA with minimal wait, in august. So I will report my experience when we are back. So, if you can, keep both ressies till then.

 

[Cynergy]

We did Garden Grill PPO last trip and were some of the first to ride Soarin. We then were able to hit Test Track with a very short wait, had a FP+ for FEA in the afternoon.

On our upcoming trip we have a PPO for Akershus and plan to do FEA then TT, with a FP+ for Soarin. Based on recent wait time trends that Josh at EasyWDW recently posted the morning waits at FEA have been low, only about 10 min at 930 on average, so even without rushing through breakfast you still should be able to do FEA without worrying about the RD crowd. I think the fact that FP+ doesn't start until 11 when WS opens helps speed the stand by line.

That said we usually alert our server when we first meet them at PPO breakfasts that we are trying to get a jump on the RD crowd and they scan my band, we always do a dining plan, and bring the check early.

 

[Hope Soda]

I have not done PPO Akershus, but I like the Garden Grill a lot better for food and it feels less cramped to me.

We had an awesome PPO at GG in March this year. We had an 8:15 reservation, but they let us into the park just before 8 with all of the others. We were the second group to be seated. We were seated near the kitchen and on the upper section. This actually turned out to be an advantage. The kitchen didn't disturb us at all and, when the characters all came out (at the same time), they all came to our table first, as a group, before splitting up and making the rounds. Se we got some nice group shots with all four characters. Then, all of the characters except for Dale came back for a second round a bit later. Dale seemed to skip over us, perhaps because he'd already visited with the rest of the group. Dale excepted, all characters had visited us by about 8:30am. We were done eating (even our slow-to-eat kids) shortly after that, and were all paid up by 8:40. Our waitress gave us fastpasses for Turtle Talk, which were basically useless, sure, but I'm not going to complain. Soarin' didn't open until 9, or I believe even a few minutes after on that day, so we had more than 20 minutes between finishing our meal and beginning to make our way through the queue to board the ride.

When we had lunch at Akershus once, it was nice, but we were stuck in a corner and it was tight. Not great for a place where some of the food comes from a buffet.

 

[shawnh199]

We did the Akershus PPO breakfast in early June. We love the food there (best bacon we had at any breakfast and the potato casserole is delicious). We were not seated until 8:15 or later and the lines were long for pictures with Belle. I would say we ate quickly, even had a second plate brought out. Key was getting our check and paying it early. We saw each princess very quickly and since we had already paid, by the time Ariel came and went, we packed up our stuff and were on our way (about 8:55am). We were in line for FEA before the rope drop lines arrived. Unfortunately for that day, the ride was down for about the first 25 minutes. We rode the ride and headed to Soarin for a short stand by line (said 30 minutes but we didn't wait for more than 5-10 minutes.)

As much as we love the food at Akershus, we will be trying Garden Grill PPO on our next visit. My girls are older now and FEA was nice, but we can check that off our bucket list. We would prefer to ride Soarin' a few times in a row before heading to Test Track (which we will have a fast pass for). Not to mention Akershus is quite expensive and with the girls being older, they don't mind missing out on princess pictures so much now. Our favorite princesses aren't there anyway.

 

[Kmv2899]

Do 8 am garden grills! The food is much better.

 

[Rera2528]

We had nearly the same experience as Hope Soda this past March, down to where we were seated. We were in the first group (maybe 3rd in line) for Soarin', and when we were finished that ride, the line was short enough for us to do it again in the standby line with minimal wait (maybe 10 minutes). So we did two rides in a row without a fastpass. We also loved the breakfast and didn't eat again until dinner that night!

 

[carrielouhoo]

Don't know when your trip is, but we are doing both PPO Garden Grill and Akershus for the same reasons, get on Soarin and FEA with minimal wait, in august. So I will report my experience when we are back. So, if you can, keep both ressies till then.

Yes, our trip is in December, so please let me know!